Cal Wellness Foundation Awards $7.4 Million to California Nonprofits

June 27, 2015

The Los Angeles-based California Wellness Foundation has announced grants totaling $7.4 million to nonprofit organizations working to promote health and wellness in California.

Awarded as part of the foundation's Advancing Wellness program, the thirty-eight grants were allocated across the state, with a focus on underfunded regions and communities in large metropolitan areas lacking a robust nonprofit infrastructure and resources. They include a grant of $225,000 over three years to the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy to boost wages and benefits and improve health outcomes in Los Angeles County; a grant of $200,000 over three years to the Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project in Oxnard in support of efforts to improve health coverage for Ventura County's indigenous immigrant community; and a grant of $250,000 to the California Calls Education Fund in Los Angeles to sustain ongoing efforts in underserved communities to inform policy makers and advocate for public policies that improve Californians' health.

"[At Cal Wellness,] we see young people who are resilient in the struggle to overcome enormous odds. If California is going to succeed as a state, then we can't afford to waste this human capital," said Cal Wellness Foundation president and CEO Judy Belk. "We need these resilient young people to fill current and future jobs, parent the next generation, and engage and participate fully in civic life."